


A Yellow Highlighter

by henriqua



Series: Otayuri Week 2017 [7]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Non-skater AU, OtaYuri Week 2017, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-25 15:10:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9825920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/henriqua/pseuds/henriqua
Summary: Otayuri Week 2017 Day 7: Soulmates | Too bad Otabek is a people watcher, not a people meeter, and on top of that he's convinced he would probably live a happier life without meeting a soulmate whose first words to him are rude ones.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Жёлтый маркер](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10577610) by [Born_With_Magic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Born_With_Magic/pseuds/Born_With_Magic)



The café near the campus that didn't close until midnight is Otabek's favorite place to study in. The atmosphere is relaxing, every coffee in their menu is good (Otabek has tried them all during his years in university) and even though he's never the only customer in the shop, it's rarely too noisy. Growing up in a big family meant Otabek never really learned to study in complete silence, and the commotion in the café is always the best background noise Otabek could ask for.  
  
Obviously Otabek visits the café even if he has no studying to do: its location is perfect if he needed a cup of coffee to take away with him on an early morning lecture, or if he and his friends wanted to catch up between or after classes.  
  
But, if Otabek is being honest, most of the time he prefers being alone. He has never been that outgoing, and socializing isn't his strongest point. When Otabek started university he had been excited to make new friends and find people who knew other topics to talk about than their soulmate tattoos and how exciting they were. People old enough to study in university would have found their soulmates already, right?  
  
Otabek had been so wrong.  
  
No matter where Otabek goes, people talk about their tattoos: the very first words your soulmate will say to you inked on your skin. Everyone has at least one – even Otabek – but he has never been too excited to find his soulmate. He isn't good with people, soulmate or not, and the black words written on his right shoulder aren't exactly encouraging ones.  
  
_You must be fucking kidding me._  
  
Otabek knows he should be happy his soulmate tattoo isn't a really generic one, like _Hello_ or _What's your name?_ but for some reason he can't exactly appreciate it. People who know about the words on his skin always say Otabek is lucky, he would definitely know immediately when he stumbles upon his soulmate.  
  
Too bad Otabek is a people watcher, not a people meeter, and on top of that he's convinced he would probably live a happier life without meeting a soulmate whose first words to him are rude ones.  
  
Otabek yawns and raises his eyes from the book on the table in front of him, resting his eyes by taking a glance out of the window. The weather had been terrible the whole day and it is slowly getting darker, the warm lights and fluffy armchairs of the café making it even harder to think about going home. Otabek lets his eyes take a look around the café: it's not crowded, mostly because of the weather and the time. Otabek spots some familiar faces from campus buried into books, and he is about to follow their example when the bell above the door tinkles and his eyes are drawn to the sound.  
  
Otabek recognizes another familiar face, but not from campus. He is pretty sure the small, blond guy wearing a bomber jacket with leopard print and black jeans is a student in the university but they have never passed each other in the corridors. Otabek only sees him studying in the café, black hood over his head, variety of colorful highlighters and a huge cup of overly sweet coffee on his table. His usual seat is near Otabek's usual one, and when Otabek gets bored or tired he usually steals glances of the blond.  
  
Only because he's slightly worried how the guy manages to study from afternoon to midnight without taking a single break, of course. And because he seems to have bigger collection of stationery than Otabek, which in itself is pretty impressing.  
  
The blond places his cup of coffee on his usual table, takes off his jacket and starts piling his studying materials on the table. A heavy-looking book, a couple of notebooks and a selection of different pens in different colors. He sits down, takes a sip of his coffee and opens the book. Otabek leans his chin on his hand, pretending to read his own book, and watches how the blond writes something down in his notebook and goes over it with an orange highlighter. His movements are small yet elastic, blue sharp eyes scanning the text from behind round reading glasses.  
  
Motivated by his not-an-actual-study-buddy's appearance (they study a lot basically next to each other but they don't know each other) Otabek decides to concentrate on his homework. He uncaps a yellow highlighter, runs it over an important sentence and stares.  
  
No color on the paper.  
  
Otabek sighs, puts the black cap back on and places the pen next to his empty coffee cup so he remembers to throw it away when he leaves. For a second Otabek considers packing his belongings and face the terrible weather outside: he doesn't have a spare highlighter with him and his studying routine would get badly messed up without one.  
  
Otabek pouts at his useless highlighter, once again leans his chin on his hand and is hit with a realization.  
  
Otabek drums his nails against his table when he considers his possibilities, the pros and cons, decides he loses nothing by trying and gets up. He walks to the blond's table and stops next to it, clearing his throat to get the other boy's attention. Blue eyes study him and Otabek scratches the back of his neck, trying to come up with a good opening line.  
  
”My yellow highlighter ran out of ink, and I was wondering could I borrow yours?” The stare on him gets even more intense, and the blond raises his brows in surprise.  
  
”You must be fucking kidding me.” It's Otabek's turns to stare, and the boy blushes lightly. ”I mean, fuck, sorry, I didn't mean to sound so rude! It's just, you know, I wasn't expecting–!”  
  
The blond shakes his head and snaps his mouth shut, rolling up the sleeve of his black hoodie instead. He stretches out his pale forearm so Otabek can read the sentence inked on his skin.  
  
_My yellow highlighter ran out of ink_.  
  
Otabek looks at the words for a moment, his head completely empty. He blinks and jumps a little when the blond starts to laugh, rolling his sleeve back down.  
  
”Oh my god, I'm so sorry though. You've been walking around with such a terrible sentence on you, it must've been awful.” Otabek huffs out a small laugh and nods, sitting down on the other side of the blond's table to wait for his mind to catch up with what had just happened. The blond takes off his glasses and looks at him, his long bangs covering his other eye. There's a small smile on his lips and Otabek realizes there's also a hint of green mixed into the blue of his eyes.  
  
”You study here like, every night and all this time...,” Otabek says and shakes his head, smiling. The boy nods and crosses his arms, giggling. He leans back, something teasing in his expression.  
  
”My name's Yuri. Feel free to borrow the yellow highlighter.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for joining me in Otayuri week <3 You can found all my entries from [here](http://sleepyams.tumblr.com/tagged/otayuri-week/) as well!
> 
> [tumblr](http://sleepyams.tumblr.com/) | [twitter](https://twitter.com/vilmahenriika)


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